A passenger conveyor (such as an escalator or a moving walk) is increasingly widely used in public places such as subways, shopping malls, and airports, and operation safety thereof is increasingly important.
The passenger conveyor has a moving step and a moving handrail. During operation, the handrail circularly slides and enters a handrail entry according to a predetermined direction. Therefore, there is a possibility that an external foreign matter is entrapped into the handrail entry. Especially, if a body part of a passenger is located on the handrail near the handrail entry, there is a risk that the body is entrapped into the handrail entry. For example, a child playing at the handrail exit and entry may place his/her hand on the handrail near the handrail entry, and at this point, the hand is in danger of being entrapped.
In the prior art, whether an external foreign matter is entrapped into the handrail entry is detected by disposing a safety switch in the passenger conveyor, and when it is detected that a foreign matter is entrapped into the handrail entry, the safety switch is triggered and the passenger conveyor is stopped, to avoid expansion of an accident. However, before the safety switch is triggered, a foreign matter has been entrapped into the handrail entry, and generally, an accident has taken place.